Sales tax not the best way to pay

Friday

Feb 22, 2013 at 10:34 PM

We must applaud the voters of Terrebonne for approving a tax for flood protection.

We must applaud the voters of Terrebonne for approving a tax for flood protection.The parish is in need of a strong levee system to protect storm surge, and a local funding source, coupled with state and federal funds, will assist in providing that protection. But was a sales tax the right tool to accomplish that goal?I think not.Flood protection is the protection of property, plain and simple.While a sales tax provides a simple means of raising public funds, it can be argued that it is also unfair, particularly for levee construction.As an example, a family of four that owns a 6,000-square-foot lot with a single-family detached home in Broadmoor will likely pay the same amount in sales tax as the same-size family that owns a 6-acre parcel on Bayou Black. Clearly the property owner with the larger parcel is receiving more benefit from the levee than the property owner with the smaller lot. Additionally, those families living outside the levee system will be paying sales taxes and receiving no benefit from the levee system.There are other means of funding. There are ad valorem taxes, and there are special assessments. Ad valorem property taxes are based on the value of the property and have their place as a public-financing option, but they can be onerous to businesses and should be used for general purposes, not specific projects.Special assessments are financing tools for specific projects like road construction, sewerage and water lines. They can be crafted in such a way that a property owner pays according to a specific benefit received from the improvement. Special assessments can be based on parcel size, development status (i.e. one acre of vacant land would be treated differently than one acre of developed land) or combinations. Furthermore, special assessments can be geographically specific and applied to only properties that actually receive a benefit, so those properties outside the levee system would not pay for protection they are not receiving.Now we hear that the governor is floating a proposal to abandon the state’s income tax and replace it with a sales tax. Can the residents of Terrebonne Parish afford another sales tax on top of the tax just approved for levee protection? We need to rethink our means of funding much-needed infrastructure and create measures that are fair and balanced to the residents and property owners in the parish.Jerome FournierSan Diego (Jerome Fournier is a Houma native and graduate of Terrebonne High School and LSU. He he has worked in the urban planning and public finance field for the past 28 years.)